Advanced Cu chemical displacement technique for SiO2-based electrochemical metallization ReRAM application

This study investigates an advanced copper (Cu) chemical displacement technique (CDT) with varying the chemical displacement time for fabricating Cu/SiO₂-stacked resistive random-access memory (ReRAM). Compared with other Cu deposition methods, this CDT easily controls the interface of the Cu-insulator, the switching layer thickness, and the immunity of the Cu etching process, assisting the 1-transistor-1-ReRAM (1T-1R) structure and system-on-chip integration. The modulated shape of the Cu-SiO₂ interface and the thickness of the SiO₂ layer obtained by CDT-based Cu deposition on SiO₂ were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The CDT-fabricated Cu/SiO₂-stacked ReRAM exhibited lower operation voltages and more stable data retention characteristics than the control Cu/SiO₂-stacked sample. As the Cu CDT processing time increased, the forming and set voltages of the CDT-fabricated Cu/SiO₂-stacked ReRAM decreased. Conversely, decreasing the processing time reduced the on-state current and reset voltage while increasing the endurance switching cycle time. Therefore, the switching characteristics were easily modulated by Cu CDT, yielding a high performance electrochemical metallization (ECM)-type ReRAM.     

Plasma properties of CrOx films synthesized by a cathodic arc evaporation process

The plasma in a cathodic arc evaporation process used for the deposition of Cr_1−xO_x films was studied by an optical emission spectroscopy (OES). With the introduction of Ar and oxygen into the chamber at deposition pressures from 0.7 Pa to 2.7 Pa, high density of evaporated chromium catalyzes the decomposition of oxygen reactive gas, and induces the formation of Cr_1−xO_x films. Optical emission spectra including atomic and ionized Cr, excited and ionized oxygen revealed that excitation, ionization and charge transfer reactions of the Cr-O plasma occurred during the Cr_1−xO_x deposition process. A simplified empirical model which incorporates the relevant atomic processes in the gas phase with the chemical composition and deposition rate of the deposited Cr_1−xO_x coating was developed. Rhombohedral Cr₂O₃ and tetragonal CrO₂ were observed in the Cr_1−xO_x coatings deposited at higher pressure than 1.3 Pa. The Cr_1−xO_x coating depicted a dense and compact microstructure with well-attached interface.     

Joint optimization of word alignment and epenthesis generation for Chinese to Taiwanese sign synthesis

This work proposes a novel approach to translate Chinese to Taiwanese sign language and to synthesize sign videos. An aligned bilingual corpus of Chinese and Taiwanese sign language (TSL) with linguistic and signing information is also presented for sign language translation. A two-pass alignment in syntax level and phrase level is developed to obtain the optimal alignment between Chinese sentences and Taiwanese sign sequences. For sign video synthesis, a scoring function is presented to develop motion transition-balanced sign videos with rich combinations of intersign transitions. Finally, the maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm is employed for sign video synthesis based on joint optimization of two-pass word alignment and intersign epenthesis generation. Several experiments are conducted in an educational environment to evaluate the performance on the comprehension of sign expression. The proposed approach outperforms the IBM Model2 in sign language translation. Moreover, deaf students perceived sign videos generated by the proposed method to be satisfactory     

Dynamic-cost-reward connection admission control for maximizing system reward in 4G wireless multihop relaying networks

The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced and IEEE 802.16j specifications adopt the mobile multi-hop relaying (MMR) mechanism for enlarging service area and improving wireless transmission quality simultaneously. By deploying different types of Relay Stations (RSs), MMR can bring some advantages: (1) the signal fading and wireless interference of a single long wireless link is improved obviously; (2) the ranges of wireless access and relay area are extended, etc. MMR can offer a high data rate transmission for packet services and can increase system capacity. Note that MMR can be applied to the public transportation system, e.g., equipped a mobile RS on a high-speed train. A mobile RS handoff initializes a multiple handoff requests of different types of traffics. It becomes as a critical handoff issue in 4G MMR. Thus, the MMR handoff needs a new efficient Connection Admission Control (CAC) to guarantee qualities for various types of traffics and to increase system revenue. However, traditional CACs are difficult to fulfill the objectives. This paper thus proposes the Dynamic Cost-Reward-based (DCR) CAC that consists of two key mechanisms: (1) adopting a Markov decision process-based (MDP) cost function and (2) providing different reward functions for different types of nodes and various types of connection. Additionally, a mathematical analytical Markov chain is modeled for DCR. The simulation results are very close to the analysis results, which justifies the correctness of the analytical model. Numerical results demonstrate that DCA outperforms the compared CACs in the probabilities of new blocking, MS-handoff, and RS-handoff dropping, FRL, GoS, and system reward.     

Moving object detection in the encrypted domain

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The privacy-preserving moving object detection has drawn a lot of interest lately. Nevertheless, current approaches use Paillier’s scheme for encryption...     

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide particles starting from chloride precursor

Zinc oxide (ZnO) was synthesized using a microwave assisted hydrothermal (MAH) process based on chloride/urea/water solution and under 800 W irradiation for 5 min. In the bath, Zn²⁺ ions reacted with the complex carbonate and hydroxide ions to form zinc carbonate hydroxide hydrate (Zn₄CO₃(OH)₆·H₂O), and the conversion from Zn₄CO₃(OH)₆·H₂O to ZnO was synchronously achieved by a MAH process. The as-prepared ZnO has a sponge-like morphology. However, the initial sponge-like morphology of ZnO could change to a net-like structure after thermal treatment, and compact nano-scale ZnO particles were finally obtained when the period of thermal treatment increased to 30 min. Pure ZnO nanoparticles was obtained from calcination of loose sponge-like ZnO particles at 500 °C. The analysis of optical properties of these ZnO nanoparticles showed that the intensity of 393 nm emission increased with the calcination temperature because the defects were reduced and the crystallinity was improved.     

Behavior of Geogrid-Sand Interface in Direct Shear Mode

The contribution of transverse ribs to the soil-geogrids interaction under pullout mode has been well documented. However, the contribution of transverse ribs to the soil-geogrid interaction under direct shear mode is, at best, unclear. Consequently, this paper presents the results of a comprehensive direct shear testing program aimed at evaluating the contribution of transverse ribs to the interface shear. The direct shear tests involved Ottawa sand and several polyester geogrids with a variety of material tensile strength, percent open area, and aperture pattern. The test results show that the shear strength of sand-geogrid interfaces under direct shear mode is significantly higher than that of sand-geotextile interfaces. Analysis of shear displacement-strength response of the interfaces indicates that, in addition to interface shear components due to sand-rib friction and sand-sand shear at the location of the openings, the transverse ribs provide additional contribution to the overall sand-geogrid interface resistance. Specifically, analysis of the results reveals that the transverse ribs of the geogrid used in this study provide approximately 10% of interface shear resistance. This contribution is positively correlated with the tensile strength and the stiffness of geogrid ribs, but is negatively correlated with the percent open area of the geogrid. A simple model is proposed to quantify the contribution of transverse ribs to the interface shear strength under direct shear mode.     

Flexible strain sensors fabricated with carbon nano-tube and carbon nano-fiber composite thin films

This paper presents the fabrication of 3 × 3 flexible strain sensor arrays using conductive polymer solutions with fillers including carbon nano-fibers and multi-walled carbon nano-tubes. The strain sensor arrays were made on polyurethane substrates using patterned surface treatment and the tilted-drop process. Atmospheric plasma was used to enhance or reduce the surface energy in specific areas for patterned surface treatment. The performance of fabricated strain sensors made using conductive polymer solutions with different ingredients was investigated. The measured gauge factors were in the 0.34 to 7.98 range for the strain of 3-7%. Under a bending test exceeding 50 times at a 150° angle, sensor damage was not observed. The demonstrated fabrication method is capable of producing conductive polymer sensors with complex designs, high reliability and is suitable for mass production.     

Impact of Channel Dangling Bonds on Reliability Characteristics of Flash Memory on Poly-Si Thin Films

In this letter, we fabricated the poly-Si-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)-type Flash memories on polycrystalline-silicon thin films and found that dangling bonds presented along the grain boundaries in the channel significantly influence their reliability characteristics in the aspects of charge storage, drain disturbance, and gate disturbance. Employing a powerful defect passivation technique, i.e., NH₃ plasma treatment, the charge storage capability was clearly observed to be remarkably improved. Even so, the hydrogenated polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si-TFTs) still suffered from serious drain and gate disturbances, which exhibited behaviors that are quite specific and undoubtedly distinct from those observed in the conventional SONOS-type memories on single crystalline substrates     

Text generation from Taiwanese sign language using a PST-based language model for augmentative communication

This paper proposes a novel approach to the generation of Chinese sentences from ill-formed Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) for people with hearing impairments. First, a sign icon-based virtual keyboard is constructed to provide a visualized interface to retrieve sign icons from a sign database. A proposed language model (LM), based on a predictive sentence template (PST) tree, integrates a statistical variable n-gram LM and linguistic constraints to deal with the translation problem from ill-formed sign sequences to grammatical written sentences. The PST tree trained by a corpus collected from the deaf schools was used to model the correspondence between signed and written Chinese. In addition, a set of phrase formation rules, based on trigger pair category, was derived for sentence pattern expansion. These approaches improved the efficiency of text generation and the accuracy of word prediction and, therefore, improved the input rate. For the assessment of practical communication aids, a reading-comprehension training program with ten profoundly deaf students was undertaken in a deaf school in Tainan, Taiwan. Evaluation results show that the literacy aptitude test and subjective satisfactory level are significantly improved.